Divination (Joker x Batman x OC)

Chapter 186

The day had passed too quickly. The sun has already set once he returned to Twyla's shop, just as she was closing. After seeing that there were no customers, Bruce confronted her. 

"Wise decision to close," Bruce said to her. "What you do here is a public danger."

"What ever do you mean?" Twyla said innocently and blew out a candle by the window.

Bruce could tell she had been approached this way countless times before. And she didn't care.

"You poisoned my wife," Bruce said.

"I did no such thing," Twyla said.  "I gave her dosage instructions for what I gave her. She overdid it, that isn't my fault."

"It nearly killed her," Bruce said.

"Ahh..." Twyla said, defensively. "You mean the one she stole from my shop. That can't  be blamed on me. Either way, she's alive isn't she? Thanks to me."

Bruce knew that she was right. Twyla was the one who had helped him go back in time.

"Are you done?" Twyla asked Bruce.

He did not answer.

"Appassionata is a very strong formula," Twyla said. "If she would have purchased instead of acting as a thief I would have told her."

"It made her fall in love with.." Bruce said, trying to speak. "Someone that is....you did this. You made her fall in love with-"

"No, no, no," Twyla said, laughing. "That's impossible."

"What?" Bruce asked.

"It is not a love potion," Twyla said. "I actually do not make anything of the sort. If your wife fell in love it was nothing to do with the potion."

"You can't be sure of that," Bruce told her. "I know what I saw."

"You don't know what you saw then," she said. "The potion affects only the body. The mind and emotions are not impacted at all."

Bruce looked away from her.

Twyla was remembering the phone call she had gotten from Adriana and a man who has apparently overdosed on the potion.

"Why did you do this?" Twyla asked. "I mean, come on. Everyone has a past. Why go digging?"

"That's a good question," Bruce said bitterly. 

"Can't unsee it can you?" Twyla asked, sympathetically.

"I will," Bruce said. "In time."

"Did it help at all?" she asked Bruce. "With your curiosity? Your need to know so badly what went on with your wife and some other man?"

Bruce clenched his teeth. He could tell Twyla didn't really care. She was amused by his suffering.

"Without that potion, she wouldn't have fallen for him," Bruce said. "Five seconds before she had it, she hated him."

"Would you like to try it?" she asked, sweetly.

"Try what?" Bruce asked her.

"Appassionata," she said. 

Bruce frowned at her. "You're trying to kill me."

"Not at all," she said to him. "You hate me don't you?"

Bruce looked her up and down and answered confidently. "Yes."

"And you're sure nothing could change that, right?" Twyla asked and touched his wrist.